Arsenal put supporters through the wringer at Anfield, racing to a two-nil advantage only to settle for a draw as Liverpool stormed back via goals from Mo Salah and substitute Roberto Firmino.
The Gunners were good value for their lead as Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus ruthlessly finished off chances inside the opening 30 minutes.
A close-range finish from Mo Salah three minutes before the break teed up a dramatic second period that reached fever pitch when the Egyptian missed a penalty after Rob Holding fouled Diogo Jota. The Reds continued to pile on the pressure and eventually grabbed a deserved, albeit hugely frustrating, equaliser in the dying stages.
Even then both sides had opportunities to seal the three points, Arsenal failing to make the most of a couple of counter attacks and Aaron Ramsdale making breathtaking saves to deny Salah and Darwin Nunez.
After the match, Arteta tried to take positives but he couldn’t hide the fact he was hoping for more.
“When you concede at the end, it’s always two dropped points as you have it and you are suffering,” said the Spaniard.
“You rely on certain moments but the feeling is, ‘Argh, we should have done it,’ but being fair to ourselves, they had four big chances they could have scored and they missed the penalty.
“We have to look at ourselves in the mirror, we should have done much better in the second half.”
In Arteta’s mind, the game turned when Salah pounced in the box before half time. Up to that point, the home sides had been feeding off scraps.
“It was a super intense match, we started the game exceptionally well, dominated, took the game where we wanted, scored the first one, continued to play, scored the second one and that was the moment to kill the game.
“In the end, before half time we gave them hope, we conceded the goal and they generated some belief in this special atmospheric stadium and the second half was a different story.
“Not the way we started, because I think we started very well in the first few moments but then we didn’t continue to play.
“We gave every single ball away, especially in dangerous areas where we allowed open spaces and big transition moments against the best team in the world at doing that. When that happens it’s chaos, it’s a lot of balls in your box, it’s difficult to get out of those situations and you suffer.”
In the closing stages, Arsenal were thankful for an inspirational performance from Ramsdale. Were it not for the England international, the home side might have scored from at least four big opportunities.
“We relied on big defensive moments where Aaron played a big part of it and they missed the penalty<‘ added Arteta.
“And then we could have nicked the game because we had three huge situations on the counter where they were oveloaded or two against two and we missed as well that ruthlessness to take the game. Looking at the two halves probably it’s a fair result and you have to take it. The big lesson is play the way we played the first half.
“You need your goalkeeper. You want to win and be in title races, how many times has Alisson done what he has to do. You have to have that, you have to have those magic moments from the keeper, he had some exceptional moments from players today and to win in grounds like this you have to have that.”
While a 2-2 draw against a Liverpool side languishing in mid-table feels disappointing, the draw represents a first point at Anfield since 2015/16.
Arteta also pointed out that other big sides have suffered at the hands of Klopp’s players this season.
“When you look back at what they’ve done to big teams, including this season, they are an exceptional team and a very difficult team to dominate for 90 minutes.
“There are going to be moments where they shift the momentum and create the game that they want. When they raise the level to that there are few teams that can keep up and you have examples through the year again. Merit to them, as well, as they are a good team.”
Coupled with Manchester City’s win at Southampton, Arsenal’s lead at the top of the table has been cut to six points with eight games remaining.
Next up it’s West Ham at the London Stadium. The boss laid down the gauntlet to his players.
“Every single day is a test and the test now is how good are we going to be on Monday and how good we’re going to prepare to beat West Ham and to play the way we want to beat West Ham,” he said.
Good talk. Lessons learned and nos let’s focus on West ham. No time to regret
Agreed. And United, Newcastle and City all lost at Anfield this season. If we don’t win the league, I’m not going to look at a point at Anfield as the defining factor. We’ve dropped way, way softer points this season. It’s a really good point. It shows how far we’ve come. And how much fight we have. Very proud of this young side. You can’t make a young team have experience. Maybe we lacked a tiny bit today. But their youthful exuberance is what has got us to this position. And I’m eternally grateful for it. And let’s not forget… Read more »
The fact that we don’t beat Man City made this game a defining moment. I hope they draw the next game straight away. CL will make them City sharper to the contrary of what us fans are expecting.
Do you remember there was that period where Fergie could put out 11 camels and still defeat us? Well, I think Liverpool are kind of that team now.
Yes, we have a stronger team, especially in midfield.
But we haven’t learnt how to win at Anfield yet. Hell, we only just scraped a win at The Emirates.
They are a fantastic side and one dodgy season doesn’t change that.
4 points against Liverpool in a season?
All fucking day.
I’ll sleep just fine tonight.
Great words. I will sleep better tonight now 😀
I think its hugely going under the radar that this season against the top 6, we have only lost 2 games, which is pretty remarkable going. Which really does highlight how good we have been. I know Xhaka has copped a lot of flak for instigating the Anfield crowd for standing his ground when Alexander-Arnold pushed him in the back, but fuck me, there was a clear foul on him seconds prior that Paul Tierney was looking straight at and for some reason opted not to give — and it was clear as day a push in the back. The… Read more »
Cmon..refs have a hard job to do, human behaviours will always likely sway to the home side, we’ve also had a few dubious decisions going our way at home, thought ref was ok yesterday, we didn’t play as well as 1st half than in our 2nd..
Win the league or not, this season has been amazing. I have a lot of confidence in this group and obviously I want us to win the league, but if we don’t, these lads have been amazing and every single one of them has my backing. What a wonderful season we’re enjoying and completely unexpectedly. Whatever the final outcome, this is a team we’ve all been behind, can continue to be behind and really should continue to be behind.
I would point to scandalous interpretations of VAR as a probable reason
Man United away, we lost because of VAR. Newcastle at home, drew because VAR refused to award 2 penalties. Brentford at home, drew because VAR forgot to draw their squiggly lines. Scandalous as ever, but I hope we have enough mettle to win it. COYG.
Wise words – my only caveat being that it was our most experienced, dressing room leader, who got involved in a moment of idiocy that buoyed up their team and fans. Not great Grannie!
What a load of guff.
Can’t believe this is actually being perceived as the turning point , not just by you but by others in the media. Surely the goal just before half time might have had something to do with it…..
Blaming Granit, honestly.
And when did that goal happen? And was it not totally against the run of play? And… had we not been utterly dominant up to that point? The goal came less than TWO minutes after Granit’s silly bollocks… he created the touch-paper that ignited a stupefied crowd, who at that point were getting onto to their team’s back and fearing yet another humiliation (remember that they’ve had more than a few this season!). Suddenly, they had something to scream in anger about. To rally around. And they did. And their players picked their chins off the turf. And within seconds,… Read more »
I think the truth is we don’t know. And it’s very difficult to prove / disprove. Liverpool had been coming into the game from 35 mins onwards. I’m really reluctant to blame Granit for this sort of ‘butterfly effect’ argument. Football is full of ifs, buts and maybes. Perhaps Granit felt Arsenal were being intimidated by Liverpool’s physicality and made a stance. Maybe without standing up for his team mates we would’ve sustained a serious injury. Who the hell knows. Either way, IMHO there’s a bunch of other far more relevant and clear cut reasons we only got one point… Read more »
Was initially gutted we didn’t win, but on reflection am now rather pleased with the draw. Looking at the positives, i think Ramsdale might have just won us the league……
Ramsdale was just monumental today.
Goals change games as they say, always a bad time to concede minutes to go before half time, especially at Anfield, after end of game i was totally vexed to why we didn’t see out a 0-2 lead when we were in control, the cold light of the next day has me drawn to the fact it was a point gained thanks to Rambo, well said Stonks, we move on..
I hope Arteta understands and accepts that the performance in 2 half and our inability to manage the game also reflects on his passive and late subs, especially keeping Zinchenko on whose passing became very sloppy, gave away plenty balls and culpable for poor defending that led to goal.
Spot on. All we do is talk about potential transfers-in, but there’s no point in having a deep squad if you on Brian on subs at 74 minutes or later.
Zinchenko ended the game with the highest passing accuracy on the pitch, completing 47 of his 50 passes. Yes, he can be a defensive liability, but his passing was arguably the reason Arteta kept him on the field for as long as he did.
Yes. He has positive attributes. He also got nut-megged which cost us the game and Liverpool had targeted him all game. Tierney also happens to be a good player and its a fair question to ask why with Liverpool get fresh legs on the pitch, we decided to leave players on the field who were being targeted and others who were clearly exhausted and couldn’t run.
You also shouldn’t underestimate the deferred pressure that Z puts on Big Gabi… he constantly had to cover Salah and Trent (to a lesser extent). That load has to tell eventually.
Exactly. Also, for their first goal, he was in the middle instead of Gabi, who was having to do Z’s job of covering Salah and he made no attempt to step out to Henderson which I think would have done if he was playing in his normal position. He’s not a good enough defender. We’re essentially playing three at the back for most of the game. I’ve been surprised that more teams haven’t targeted our left hand side because we’re not playing a proper LB there but Liverpool did and I wonder if City might too.
Yeah. I’m not doing that.
Well said. The players were knackered and it was clear they needed some fresh legs out there.
I completely agree, Philip. Arteta is not beyond criticism and any negative comment isn’t calling for his head. Our players were tired. Firmino comes on then takes the ball off an exhausted Saka, Zinchenko gets megged with Liverpool targeting that side from the start, then Firmino puts it in. What fresh legs can bring you… Then Saka is through at the end and hasn’t the legs for it. The lad was running on empty for the final half an hour and we had Smith-Rowe, joint top goal-scorer, and Nelson not even warming up on the bench. Tierney brought on when… Read more »
It’s not what cost us. They had an xG of about 4 my friend.
What cost us was a baffling collective ‘decision’ to sit back and try to absorb pressure at one of the toughest grounds in world football! Our stellar first 40 mins had put their entire defence on a razor’s edge of yellow cards – they looked shell-shocked and panicky every time our wide players ran at them. We concede a sucker-punch just before half-time and – instead of coming out for the 2nd on full gas, running the hell at them to force the 2nd yellow or nick the 3rd goal (or both!) – we go into our shells and invite… Read more »
Hard to be critical of Trossard. No Odegaard and Martinelli and Saka shattered. Has to play between Van Dijk, Konate and Fabinho.
I just cannot understand how you don’t try ESR or Nelson to push them back. Saka and Martinelli were running on fumes and it showed.
He got megged and they scored from it, having had a substitute dispossess one of our clearly exhausted players. It cost us.
Zinny for all his attributes has given up so, so many chances since the WC. Other players (e.g. Gabriel) would have been slaughtered for some of them. The conversation here is nearly always ‘KT just can’t do what he can do’. For some reason, most people never talk about KT’s strengths & never talk about Zinny’s weaknesses. It’s an extraordinarily one-sided conversation. Arteta has done an amazing job this season….but I think his under-utilisation of KT has been his biggest mistake, and I think it has cost us. (both in terms of points & a good player leaving in the… Read more »
I would play Ziiinch for the first half at Citeh – the moment (THE MOMENT please God!) we score, get him off and bring KT on.
We are just way more solid with KT at the back, and he still carries an attacking threat combining with Gabi up the left flank.
He give Gabi more flexibility because KT can run on the overlap when Zinky can’t. Also, Zinky is slow. Saka gets so much more joy on the right hand side because White can threaten the overlap, it makes the defender think twice about where Saka might go with the ball.
P.D. – I couldn’t agree more.
City and Newcastle lost there and United were trounced. Hopefully at the end of the season we look on this as a point gained rather than two lost.
Great observation! Thanks for putting it in perspective.
Says something about how far we have come that we are all disappointed with a draw
And without Big Willy ….
True enough. I wish he’d have given some of the lads on the bench a go though. I really thought some intensity up front would have worked Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold a bit better, who were both really bad (imagine if Holding does what Van Dijk did for our first goal…). Also I felt Konate, Fabinho and others were unhinged. I’d have loved to see us turn up the heat a little bit by bringing on Smith-Rowe or Nelson towards the end. I thought we could still get at them and if we did then its 1-3 and a totally… Read more »
If I can turn back the clock, I would sub Martinelli who is clearly very tired instead of Jesus.
In PL, they’ve only lost one game at Anfield this season (ok it was Leeds!!) and have beaten Citeh, Newcastle, and trounced
Manure. Liverpool are now a mid-table team who step up against the big teams. Playing there now is a bit like Burnley or Stoke with fans calling everything.
That first 40 mins was simply the most dominant and aggressive football I’ve seen in years.
I believe!!!!
At least Firmino won’t be saving Liverpool again after today.
Salah missing that penalty somehow feels like a van Nistelrooy moment to me.
The moment you realised he was a cunt?
lol that too!
Mate – Salah is a class player, who rarely dives or tries to buy fouls.
Kane is a cunt. Maupay is a cunt. Van N was definitely a cunt. Salah is not.
I was messing about. Plenty of cunts in that liverpool team tbh
he is undoubtedly a class player
I hate the way they whine about Arsenal players falling down and have this victimhood thing going on but then Jota puts his leg in front of Holding and rolls about the pitch.
You can’t have it both ways: being a victim and simulating like that. They were shitty the whole game.
Jota definitely was the tripper and Rob the trippee… just that Paul The Cunt Tierney was always going to give them the pen.
We now need to match City’s results, and draw at Etihad. Easy peasy. 🤯
7 wins and a draw gets us there
6 wins and a 2 draws gets us there as long as one of them comes at Emptyhad
If we get 6 wins and 2 draws, by definition we’d either have drawn or won at Etihad!
Lemon Squeezy! Come on you rip roaring reds 🔥
I love Arteta. I wouldn’t trade him for any other manager. And I am sure he is basing decisions on a lot of information that fans just don’t have. But the Kiwior Odegaard decision seemed odd. And if our second half tactics to sit off and not go at them were his tactics and not the players interpretation then I think he got it slightly wrong. If we continued to go at them and played the relatively open game of the first half we probably would have conceded one or two goals. But we probably would have scored at least… Read more »
Not to mention that we’d tortured their whole defence onto the yellow card trip-wire. It defies logic that we just sat back and didn’t press home that advantage. Their whole defence was on tenterhooks… and we took our foot off their throats.
Love Arteta, but I think he panicked today. Tierney / Jorginho should have come on before kiwor. Didn’t make sense to alter our shape. Just needed a more solid back four. Really fell apart afterwards conceding chance after chance.
The boys did great. We move on to West Ham and the title. It’s possible.
All we need is a result at Man City and I think the league is ours. Even with a loss to Man City and we are still 3 pts clear if we win out the rest of the games. The title is ours to lose!
Well, we’re not as they have a game in hand. If we lose at City and all other matches are wins for everyone, it will come to GD which we trail right now
poor management from arteta today.
got the two goals and tried to pull an emery by not pushing for a third and instead setting up shop. arteta failed to make changes or inspire the group at the half and simply tried to hand on (playing for a draw) instead of pressing the advantage, then waited too long to make subs and we lost the initiative and were lucky not to lose the game outright.
“when the Egyptian missed a penalty after Rob Holding fouled Diogo Jota.” Allegedly fouled.
it was a foul. maybe not a penalty, but a foul. jota was looking away from goal, so no need for holding to be so close and step on his heels
I am not going to lie, I think Arteta really played his hand poorly in this game. It was so clear we needed fresh legs towards the end of the game. Liverpool made full use of their bench and ours was better. Firmino wins the ball off an absolutely exhausted Saka, Zinchenko gets nut-megged while Liverpool were exploiting that side all game, then Firmino puts it in. Honestly, I think he let the occasion get to him and it was disappointing. Right at the end Saka was through. We might say the pass was overhit. For me, Saka didn’t have… Read more »
Exactly! You forget to mention that their entire defensive line was on yellow-cards… what more reason did we need to bring on some pace and energy and RUN at the fukkas for the last half-hour. Worst case, we get ’em down to 10 men and they can’t press forward. Best case, we nick a 3rd goal and it’s all over.
A WIN wouldn’t have won us the league today. We still needed to win the rest of the games. So, a DRAW is not a disaster. 3 points would have been great but 1 will do for now. I felt after going 2 nil up we may have become a little complacent that the game was already won. This dropped points should help the players to refocus and help us to finish the job for the remaining games.
The trouble is – and I really don’t want to voice anything unproductive or negative here – but the thing that’s been nagging me is those light blue cunts up the M1 don’t look like they’re going to drop many points – if any at all. I said to the missus last night, it feels increasingly like we’re going to have win all of our remaining games and hold those fuckers to a draw in their own back yard. I pray that’s not the case – and it’s a darn sight easier than having to win two nil against Liverpool’89… Read more »
Just watching the Roy Keane take on Robertson at half time.
Here’s one for the Arsecast Extra – I’m sure Blogs would be able to edit a remix involving some smoochy sexy 70’s Issac Hayes Stax Blue Label style ‘lurve’ groove (‘Joy’ by Issac Hayes springs to mind) with Keane repeatedly intoning “Baby” over the top of it!! 😂😂
Over to you, Andrew!! 😂🍺👍
With Saliba and Tomyiasu we should have won this game.
A VIEW FROM THE TOP: While we could see Anfield as 2 points dropped, it’s worth zooming in on the next fortnight, which I believe WILL decide the title. Here’s how our points lead could (should!) look by the time we go to the Etihad – and it’s very interesting: City beat struggling Leicester – 3 pt gap We beat Hammers (a must) – 6 pt gap We beat Saints (not easy, but vital) – 9 pt gap What we mustn’t forget is that – with City battling in Europe and the FA Cup over the next weeks – we… Read more »
A shame the linesman wasn’t the ref. Robertson deserved a whack for kicking Saka all afternoon.
Well obviously Tierney gave instructions to let the game flow…his assistant took note